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Key Takeaways
- Beeper Mini, the chat app that brought iMessage to Android, is facing a widespread outage, possibly due to Apple closing a loophole in its messaging protocol.
- Users started receiving error messages when trying to send texts through the app, and Beeper acknowledged the service disruption.
- Beeper founder Eric Migicovsky suggests that if Apple is involved, it raises questions about its commitment to privacy and security, especially with the recent announcement of RCS support. Beeper Mini’s future is uncertain unless service can be restored.
Beeper Mini, the chat app that successfully brought iMessage to Android earlier this week, is suffering a widespread service outage, fueling speculation Apple might have closed whatever loophole Beeper found by reverse engineering the tech giant’s messaging protocol. On Friday afternoon, Beeper Mini users began seeing repeated error messages when they went to try to send texts through the app. “Failed to lookup on server: lookup request timed out,” the notification reads. At 3:34pm ET, Beeper acknowledged the service disruption. “Investigating reports that sending/receiving is not working in Beeper Mini,” the startup tweeted.
Asked about the possibility of Apple’s involvement in the outage, Beeper founder (and former Pebble CEO) Eric Migicovsky told TechCrunch, “Yes, all data indicates that.” Apple did not immediately respond to Pocket-lint’s comment request.
“If it’s Apple, then I think the biggest question is — if Apple truly cares about the privacy and security of their own iPhone users, why would they try to kill a service that enables iPhones to send encrypted chats to Android users?” Migicovsky added. “With their announcement of RCS support, it’s clear that Apple knows they have a gaping hole here. Beeper Mini is here today and works great. Why force iPhone users back to sending unencrypted SMS when they chat with friends on Android?”
Beeper Mini brings iMessage to Android, with some caveats
Beeper just one-upped the competition, by reverse-engineering iMessage so you can use it on your Android phone.
What does this mean for Beeper Mini’s future?
At this point, it’s hard to say. Unless Beeper’s software engineers can find some way to restore service, the app’s future is limited, to say the least. In a blog post it published Tuesday, Beeper said it had worked with a security researcher to reverse engineer iMessage, including the protocol’s support for on-device encryption, and create a way for Android phones to connect to Apple’s servers. Compared to competing solutions, including the Sunbird backend phone maker Nothing briefly used for its Chats app, Beeper Mini was nearly seamless. It did not depend on Mac mini server farms to relay messages to other iMessage users.
Notably, the service disruption comes in the same week European Commission officials tenatively found iMessage was not popular enough with enterprise users to warrant additional regulation from the EU. Ahead of the deadline to file challenges to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple said it would roll out support for RCS messaging sometime in 2024.
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